WEBVTT - Ep 2: Harlem Czarina 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:06.880 Novel. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.720 I knew I wanted to be a writer very early 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.880 in life. By the time I was seven years old, 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.000 there were no more dreams of being a cowgirl in 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:27.560 outer space. Instead, I pretended to smoke pencils over imaginary typewriters. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.200 I've always been a voracious reader, and I soon gravitated 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:38.200 toward the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, that cultural movement 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.000 of the nineteen twenties and thirties that established Black Americans 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:47.240 as taste makers, especially in regards to the arts. During 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.920 one of my more rebellious moments of junior high school, 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.880 I wrote out the full poem of Harlem Renaissance writer 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.560 Claude McKay's If We Must Die on my homeroom's chalkboard. 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.840 If we must die, let it not be like hogs 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:07.360 hunted and pinned in an inglorious spot. It's a poem 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.960 of defiance. Basically, if we go out, we're not going 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.759 out like a bunch of suckers. That day in home room, 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.280 I was fascinated by this era of the past, and 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.280 it was helping me aspire toward an imaginary future for myself. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.880 I saw the Harlem Renaissance as the epitome of what 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:29.640 an artist community could look like. 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.760 I'd like to tell people, welcome to Harlem. Are you 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:40.679 a local Harlem? 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.360 Every now and then? Because there is it's you know, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.760 it's like an hour on the train. Even though I've 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.680 been living in New York for over six years, I've 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.120 yet to do any official tourist thing like take a 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.840 guided walk through Harlem. So I went uptown and let 0:01:57.840 --> 0:01:59.400 a professional show me around. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.200 I like to tell people no place in the world 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.560 has contributed more to American history and world history than Harlem. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.760 When I first cut up to my tour guide, Carolyn Johnson, 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.360 I knew I'd be in good hands. Tall and slim, 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.600 Carolyn was dressed simply for a warm day of walking, jeans, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.640 a light denim jacket, and sensible shoes. She was on 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.239 the phone ironing out a little business wrinkle while indicating 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.040 I should approach her, and while speaking to folks passing by. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.680 Excuse me, miss, I'm doing yourself. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:39.160 She radiated all the energy of a quintessential multitasking New Yorker. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:40.600 And you're born to raise a hall. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.919 Yeah, I couldn't think of living any fresh outghborhood. 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:49.720 Yeah, I was really excited about the tour, but also 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.560 afraid I'd be disappointed. Time and gentrification aren't friendly to 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.440 historically black neighborhoods. I didn't want to see a slick 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.600 coffee shop that doesn't take care standing in the place 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.200 where the activist Marcus Garvey may have delivered Pan African speeches, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.440 or where writer Nella Larson may have once typed out 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.520 her manuscript for passing. Instead, I got to see that 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:17.000 a lot of buildings remain virtually unchanged, like the building 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.320 where activist poet James Walden Johnson and his brother Jay 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.760 Rosamond Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and sing. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:29.720 James Weldon Johnson, Yes, Olivia. 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.400 It took my breath to learn that the ashes of 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.880 Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent voices of the 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.480 Harlem Renaissance, are intereered in the floor of the Schomberg 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.320 Center for Research in Black Culture. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.320 In between Lenox and Seventh we had over one hundred 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:49.600 and thirty restaurants, bar speakeasy, east, churches and establishments. 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.240 I saw the home of jazz pioneer Fat Swaller, the 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.840 studio of the great photographer James vandersey So. 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.560 On this street. Down the block is where Billy Holliday 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.280 was to stop, but it's still standing. It's not as 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:03.960 Phill's place today Bill Factory. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.920 As the tour continued, I realized I was hearing a 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.200 lot of names I already knew, and not the one 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.400 I was hoping to learn more about. I was walking 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.920 the same streets Eunice Hunting once walked, but my tour 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.320 guide hadn't mentioned her yet. Where was Eunice? 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.040 Do you have one hundred and thirty third Street? Swing Street? 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.680 They called it Jungle Alley? And that's what a real 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:33.240 party was. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.599 What does she get into as a young woman fresh 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:37.400 out of college? 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:39.479 Where did she sweat her hair out? 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.240 I came to Harlem hoping for a glimpse of Unice 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.919 and the neighborhood she moved to in the nineteen twenties, 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.960 which quickly became her playground and the vibrancy of her youth, 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.080 and would go on to be her home for the 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.560 majority of her life. But amongst this celebration of Harlem's past, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.520 the ghost of her memory seemed determined to stay just 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.119 out of reach. That is until I asked my tour guide, 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:10.280 Carolyn about a particular building four O nine edgecomb Avenue. 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:12.960 It wasn't a stop on the tour. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:14.839 Well, we can go up there. You can take that 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:16.560 two bus right up there, drop you right off in 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:16.920 front of it. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.039 Of course Carolyn knew of it. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.080 They're a good marshalltt W de Boys, Walter White. That 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:23.240 was like the eight building. 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.279 Ever since the nineteen twenties, the movers and shakers of 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.200 Harlem had lived at four O nine Edgecomb Avenue. One 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:35.680 day that would include Unice two. When I think about Unis, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.000 it can feel like someone is humming a few bars 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.160 of a song I used to know, but now I 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:47.920 can't remember the lyrics. But here finally was a glimpse 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:53.239 of Unis, like always perpetually just around the next corner, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.440 out of reach and a little overshadowed by her neighbors, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.960 but still here amidst the Harlem renaissance. 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:06.400 Here, this is where we live. This is where it 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:07.000 all happened. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.240 From the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel, I'm Nicole Perkins 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:45.680 and this is the Godmother Episode two Harlem Czarina tucked 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.440 between funeral notices and municipal updates of a nineteen twenty 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.479 three edition of The Yonkers Herald as a small article. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:59.120 It's an announcement. Nine thousand invitations have been issued for 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.000 the largest black wedding ever held in the country. The 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.240 bride to be is the prominent and extremely wealthy socialite, 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.760 Miss May Walker Robinson. Her grandmother, Madame C. J. Walker, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.240 is a hair care product pioneer and the first American 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.760 female entrepreneur of any race to become a millionaire. The 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.680 Walker Robinson's were a big deal in Harlem nineteen twenty three, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.440 and the wedding makes headlines across the country, especially in 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:28.240 the Black press. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.040 All of these other black institutions of the public sphere 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.040 in the twenties and thirties look to the Black press 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.560 to sort of keep their pulse on what is hot 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.880 and sexy culturally, but also what is hot in terms 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.960 of politics. It's where the stage is being set for 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.120 who the movers and shakers in the society people are. 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.880 Units had been a socialite herself from a young age. 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.480 The Huntings didn't have the Walker Robinson's wealth, but her 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.920 parents were still very much a part of the black 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.920 social elite. In an article from The New York Age 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.880 in nineteen twenty three, there's a picture of May Walker 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.920 Robinson on her wedding day, seated in her wedding dress, 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:13.960 surrounded by bridesmaids and flower girls in glossy sheer, decadent, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.640 bright dresses, replete with headdresses and bouquets. And if you 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:23.200 look closely, there in the back row, along a line 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.120 of other women honored with the role of bridesmaid, second 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.680 from the right, head turned slightly, eyes on something just 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:39.280 beyond the camera, is Eunice Hunting. It's not clear whether 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.800 Eunice in May would have really been friends, if the 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.040 number of bridesmaids is anything to go by, but her 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.160 inclusion was a mark of her emerging importance in this 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.839 elite circle. Eunice was slotting into the high falutine social 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:57.200 circle of black women, sometimes referred to as the czarinas 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.319 their every move was covered breath by the Black press 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.160 at the time, read not just by New Yorkers, but 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.560 by black people all across the country. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.079 Whose wedding were they at, what were they wearing? Where 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.800 did they dine that evening? And in the next breath 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.080 a really cutting line about a choice that they made, 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.120 either politically, professionally or in terms of what they wore. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.800 Even they have to be exemplars. They're supposed to be exceptional, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.560 and they're also supposed to be engaging in behaviors that 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.240 help further the race right. There isn't a lot of 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.640 space for people to just be individuals and say, oh, 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:38.560 I don't care about that race thing over there. 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.080 With William and Addie Hunts and as parents, Unice would 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.679 have been better prepared than most for this kind of pressure. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.760 She had already lived a truly exceptional life after fleeing 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.320 the terrors of the nineteen oh six Atlanta race massacre. 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:52.959 As a young. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.920 Girl, she'd lived in Germany, attended a predominantly white college, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:01.120 and graduated with two degrees all by the time she 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:06.559 arrived in Harlem aged twenty five. It's possible that Unice's 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.200 class and education made her a little sheltered at first. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:10.760 I think she. 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.800 Didn't know what to expect in the real world. It 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.040 wasn't a matter of just living in Harlem. It was 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.800 a matter of going out in the community because that 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:20.760 was her job. 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.240 Pretty soon after graduating, Unice took up a job as 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.800 a social worker with Family Services in New York and 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.120 New Jersey. Work would bring her in contact with a 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.720 whole new sphere of black life. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.280 By the nineteen twenties, Harlem was referred to as being 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.600 like the capital of the black world. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.520 All right, so picture it mid nineteen twenties, Harlem. It's 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:50.560 Sunday morning. Unice Hunting, twenty five years old, a social worker, 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.560 a socialite. She leaves her trendy apartment and walks south 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.360 to one hundred and thirty fifth Street, Or maybe she 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.280 takes the number three train and uses the minute she 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.000 saves to stand in awe of the magic of the 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.120 black mecca that sits before her. 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.360 She would have seen on one corner black communists standing 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.679 on a soapbox talking about the revolution. On the other 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.360 soapbox across the corner, she would have seen traditional politicians 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.120 urging African Americans to leave the Republican Party and come 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.199 join the Democratic Party. On the third street corner, she 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:25.440 would have seen a religious figure, maybe the guy called 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.280 the Barefoot Prophet, who was telling everyone they better get 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.559 with Jesus right away or they're can be going to Hell. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.400 And on the fourth corner, those would have been the 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:33.400 race nationalists. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.120 The community of Harlem, unlike many of the spaces units 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.679 must have been used to by that time, was full 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:41.640 of diverse black life. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.760 You know, Harlem becomes this place where African Americans have 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:50.680 a chance to remake themselves all over again, securing better jobs, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.600 better wages, and even housing conditions. Is all really a 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.000 dream from many people. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.800 But many of those new arria to the neighborhood soon 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:06.719 found themselves falling into systemic traps which don't sound all 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.840 that different from the racism Unis and her family had 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:10.720 left in the South. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.840 Those dreams are complicated by Jim Crow North. They're complicated 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.000 by police violence. They are complicated by the thread of 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:21.720 public violence on the street. 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.040 Between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty, the number of Black 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.480 people living in just that one and a half square 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.400 mile of central Harlem increased eight times over, from a 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.680 little over eighteen thousand to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.679 The Big Apple offered new beginnings and opportunities. 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:47.280 There are countless shops, clubs, tenement housing buildings. Harlem is 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:48.800 kind of like a melting pot. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.520 So as Unice walks up one hundred and thirty fifth 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.200 Street that Sunday morning, she can see every facet of 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.880 black life on one corner. From the black elite and 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.480 fur coats knew ready to wear dresses off the rack. 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.359 People at the time got very dressed. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.800 Up, working class women and freshly laundered hand me downs 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:10.920 and darned. 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.280 Stockings, donning the best that they have in their closet. 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.959 All the good time boys and girls and their flashiest 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.680 silks and softest hankies. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.800 It was part of the whole atmosphere where you wore 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.360 wonderful clothes. You know, you wanted impress each other. 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.600 When I think about the hair of nineteen twenties Harlem, 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.360 I think of the expression fried died and laid to 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.760 the side. Keeping straight hair was a matter of pride 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.160 and professionalism, regardless of the kind of job you had. 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.600 Fingerways and big body bobs were all the rage. Kinks 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.800 and tight curls weren't appreciated as much as they are today. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.200 We also see women dawning like not necessarily afros, but 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.360 natural hair meaning no chemicals, and you may see women 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:56.319 with pressed hair. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.040 I avoided moving to New York for as long as 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.160 I could. I didn't think my country self could handle 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.760 all the excitement. Sometimes I can't, but I hope Eunice 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.720 fully enjoyed all that nighttime. Harlem had to offer with 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.640 red lipstick, finger waves, and a breezy dress made to 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:23.760 flutter around the Charleston and Lindy hop all night. Moving 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.640 to Harlem, especially at this point in this history and 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:31.800 at the age Unis was, must have felt exciting. What 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:36.720 would those communists, preachers, partiers, and fur coat wearing socialites 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.800 rushing by have seen when they looked back at Unice. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:42.360 I like to think she was the kind of young 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.320 woman who yearned to be at the center of all 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:44.800 this action. 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.600 I like to think that she felt herself to be 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.440 at the foot of a great hill. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.000 But did she know yet which path would lead her 0:14:55.400 --> 0:15:00.880 into her new life? For now, Unice's parents had offered 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.160 her a road map of sorts, but the glamor of 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:24.000 the Harlem Renaissance must have exerted a powerful pull. There's 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.600 a writer of the Harlem Renaissance era that reminds me 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:32.440 of Unus Zora nil Hurston and Zora nil Hurston's fiction. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:37.080 With her anthropological attention to dialogue, I found images of 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.560 the women elders in my family. She made me want 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.040 to know more about my family member's internal worlds and 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.880 wonder what they may have seen her novel. Their eyes 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:52.040 were watching. God made me realize my elders had whole 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.720 lives before I knew them. It seems silly, but when 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.440 you're young, you know your grandmother is grandmama, and never 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.320 think about the idea that at some point in her 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.520 life she may have taken a much younger lover who 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.800 filled her with renewed passion. Like in the book with 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.560 Zora Neil Hurston, it wasn't just her writings I latched onto. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:19.760 It was also the story of her life during the 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.840 Harlem Renaissance. She was a prolific writer an anthropologist, but 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.120 in nineteen sixty she died, broke in obscurity, and was 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:34.680 buried in an unmarked grave. In nineteen seventy three, renowned 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.440 writer Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, located her 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.600 grave and helped bring Hurston's literary career back to the 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:48.120 public eye, and it stayed there. How could someone like Zora, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.840 who was once one of the most popular Black women 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:59.440 in the country disappear from history so easily. Unics and 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.720 Zora were both outspoken and determined, traits not often appreciated 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.880 in black women. But there's another comparison between the two. 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.280 Ever since her arrival in Harlem in the mid twenties, 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.679 units hadn't just been absorbing the sights and sounds and 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.960 smells of her surroundings. She took to her typewriter with thin, 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.480 ivory sheets of paper and began writing about them. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:34.240 Nineteen twenty five. The Corner by Unice Carter. My friend 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.640 lives in the house on the corner. She lives high 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.720 above the street, in a doll's house of white enamel 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.919 and soft blues, with lovely old furniture and oriental rugs 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:52.200 of faded brilliance on dark polished floors, in a miniature 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:57.480 home with a real fireplace and polished grasses and flowers 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.480 all about in crystal bowls. She lives high up there, 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.480 but below are the street and the avenue. And one 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.080 fall night, as I waited for her in the loveliest 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.960 room of all, I turned from watching the fire flicker 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.679 and dart across the room, and great chrysanthemums casting sleeping 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:24.200 shadows on the wall. I turned from this and watched 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:30.439 the street. It was alive with light and sound, the 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:41.240 light and sound of the city, the Black City. 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.760 The piece you just heard is called The Corner. It 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.040 was written and published in nineteen twenty five. In it, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.600 Eunice is writing an insider's account, documenting the sensual experiences 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.280 of living in the neighborhood, sights and sounds that might 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:02.199 go unnoticed by visiting outsiders. Unice's early writings offer a 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.160 unique perspective to who she was. Her professional and activist 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:11.040 writings show a determined, educated, even commanding woman, and when 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.680 you add the wings of creativity, her. 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:19.879 Short stories were wonderful. They were celebrated by some of 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:24.400 the most prominent writers in Harlem. She for instance, would 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:26.639 go to some of the cocktail gatherings and it was 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.280 important to her because you couldn't just show up, you 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.880 had to be invited. People would get dressed up. These 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.040 were the top artists of the era, and she became 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:38.760 part of that because of her writing. 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.480 Eunice Hunting is not a name I remember reading about 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.800 in the library. I'd like to think that it's because 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.040 the era was so full of great talent and the 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.920 world was moving so fast at the time that some 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.639 people fell through history as cracks. But in this moment 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:03.800 of history, it feels especially important to actively remember black luminaries. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.120 When I was growing up, Zora nil Hurston's their eyes 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.920 were watching. God was taught in sophomore English classes. 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:12.639 All over America. 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.280 But as I speak, Black history is being erased from 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.400 schools across the country. Who's to say that Zora nil 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.919 Hurston's work won't be buried again. Writer's works frequently get 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.080 lost to the ravages of time, and I wonder if 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.919 Unics used her fiction, her articles, and reviews as a 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:38.440 way of carving her name into history's tree trunk. Unice 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:50.280 was here. Maybe I'm projecting because as a writer myself, 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.840 I hope my work will last. And that's someone one hundred, 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.480 two hundred years from now will scroll through the library 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:02.240 catalog shipped into their left pink finger, probably and see 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:07.800 my name and know I existed. In nineteen twenty five, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.359 Unics had another piece of writing published, but this time, 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.280 unlike the Corner, it was an essay, and unlike the Corner, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.800 it shows that Unice was looking out to a world 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.879 beyond Harlem. It was called breaking Through. 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.320 Harlem is a modern ghetto. True, that is a contradiction 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.840 in terms, but prejudice has ringed this group with invisible 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:38.320 lines and bars. Within the bars, you will find a 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:44.080 small city, self sufficient, complete in itself, a riot of 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:49.199 color and personality, a medley of song and tears, a 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:54.399 canvas of browns and golds and flaming reds, and yet bound. 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.520 There is also some tugging from without at the ropes 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.480 that bind the ghetto. It is the result of the 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.800 efforts of the whites, because of curiosity, self interest, a 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:12.080 spasm of self righteousness, or very rarely genuine interest, to 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.240 establish a contact with those within the ghetto. 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.399 In the essay, Eunice argues in favor of those. 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.520 Who often appear in the first instance to be deserting 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:23.240 the race. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.080 And talks about those striving to be the first to 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:27.119 accomplish something. 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:31.040 Whereas many who break the bonds are actuated solely by 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:33.680 the desire to get the best for themselves in spite 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.960 of prescription, a few realize that they are blazing a 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.159 trail that others of the race may follow. The essay 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:42.800 goes on there is another side of the picture. 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:45.320 It is a tale of long. 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.760 Dark years, of dismal failure, of brave struggles to rise 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:54.960 above mediocrity, of bitter fights for existence, A tale twisted 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.560 with heartaches and heartbreaks, a tale drenched in sweat and blood, 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.280 but still shot Through with flashes of sunlight upon pure gold. 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.040 It takes rare courage to fight a fight that more 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:14.240 often than not ends in death, poverty, or prostitution of genius. 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:18.840 But it is to these who make this fight, despite 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:22.640 the tremendous odds, despite the deterring pessimism of those who 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:26.479 see the tangle of prejudice that surrounds the ghetto, a 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:30.000 hopeless barrier, that we must look for the breaking of 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.320 the bonds now linked together by ignorance and misunderstanding. 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:37.159 It's a righteous essay. 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:42.919 It feels autobiographical and maybe even a bit self aggrandizing 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.919 and smug, like she was telling her readers get like me, kids, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.720 as if you can. But it seems to show Unice 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:53.640 starting to turn away from the. 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.760 Riot of color and personality. 0:23:56.720 --> 0:24:06.000 To pursue other goals. You can tell from reading Breaking 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:09.439 Through that Unice was deeply concerned with the idea of 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:12.800 her own legacy, and it's interesting to think about it 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:15.320 in the context of where Unice's life was at in 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:17.960 nineteen twenty five when she wrote this as a twenty 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.240 six year old. You see, she did not sign the 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:25.840 essay Breaking Through with the name Unice Hunting. She signed 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:31.240 it Eunice Hunting Carter because by nineteen twenty five, Eunice 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:32.119 was married. 0:24:33.280 --> 0:24:37.720 She lived in a society where women married and had children. 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:39.440 That was the way it was. 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:46.600 Writer, social worker, socialite, and now wife. But these roles 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:48.040 weren't keeping her satisfied. 0:24:49.040 --> 0:24:54.040 I think Unis did feel very strongly about being role modeled. 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:59.879 She wrote about it, how it's very important to accomplish 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:03.960 so people who come beyond you know, this is a woman, 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:07.560 this is a black person, and she's very successful. I 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:11.320 can be that way too. 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:17.800 By this point in Unice's life, she's clearly been formulating 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:22.359 a plan. Looking back now, Breaking Through can be seen 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:26.280 as a roadmap she'd written for herself. It outlined a 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:30.600 strategy that Unice would continually use throughout her life, especially 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:33.000 the decisions she would make in the final years of 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:37.480 the Roaring twenties. She wanted to be different. She wanted 0:25:37.640 --> 0:25:55.359 to be a trailblazer. It's nineteen twenty three. Unice meets 0:25:55.400 --> 0:25:58.960 a wealthy man and his name is Lyle Carter. 0:25:59.520 --> 0:26:02.000 He was born and raised in Barbados. 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:06.080 Lyle arrived in New York City in nineteen thirteen and 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:09.639 evolved into a prominent figure in Harlem too, in a 0:26:09.680 --> 0:26:13.000 more understated way than Eunice. He'd built his wealth through 0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:17.440 a successful dental practice. Eunice married Lyle in nineteen twenty four. 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:22.280 She and her husband lived in this beautiful house in Harlem, 0:26:22.680 --> 0:26:24.240 and they liked to entertain. 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:28.040 Their wedding had been a small, intimate affair, a far 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:31.800 cry from the lavish May Robinson Walker extravaganza. 0:26:32.320 --> 0:26:34.640